Hedgehog Cuteness

Happy weekend, hope it's a sunny one for you! Nice weather over here in the mid-west, hope it lasts a little bit longer.

I wanted to do a little coloring this weekend. The Allsorts challenge has been a great inspiration again with their theme  Sparkle and Shine, I thought this cute image was perfect to use for the challenge.

Stamped onto xpress it blending card using memento tuxedo ink and I used copic markers for coloring. I kept the card on the clean and simple side, I just embellished with some jute twine and layered the image onto scalloped green and striped paper. Following the sparkle and shine theme at Allsorts, I added Wink of Stella sparkles to the dandelion puff and glossy accents onto the ladybug. Sentiment is from the set Snippets by Penny Black, you can find it here in my Etsy shop brand new. I have also listed the card if you're interested.

The sparkle is really hard to see in the photo above, but below is a close up. 

Besides Allsorts, I am also playing along at Sunny Day Crafting where anything goes.

Have a great day and thanks so much for visiting!

Pink Flowers Just For You

Good morning! I am back already with another card. Having so much fun following the Allsorts challenges and this week I decided to play along again. The theme this week is "pink", so I created a pretty pink floral card.

I recently discovered PSX stamps, especially love their detailed floral stamps and although these stamps are really old and no longer being made, I think they make the prettiest cards. And I love that they are wood mounted!!! This is another one of those old stamps.  I heat embossed the image on  xpress it blending card, then colored with copic markers and a colored pencil for a little more shading. An old Stampin Up background stamp was then used on the image panel and edges were inked using distress ink. I thought distressed edges would look nice with this vintage looking image, so I distressed all edges and used my sewing machine around the image panel. Some pretty corner die cuts (Whimsy Stamps die) were added to each one of the 4 corners. A little clear button and twine finishes off the card. 

This is the inside. I heat embossed the sentiment (old - by Stampin Up) and used the same flower stamp but only the top portion of the stamp. The dark card stock looks black, but it's actually dark brown. 

This card has also been listed in my Etsy shop if you're interested. 

Playing along again in these challenges:

The Flower Challenge:

Allsorts

Have a great day! And thank you so much for visiting!!

Penny Black and More - Midmonth Inspiration

Happy Tuesday! It's time for a little more inspiration at Penny Black and More, the design team has been busy creating some more gorgeous cards following the October color challenge or photo inspiration, it's up to you how you interpret this challenge.

 I went with the colors once again, love the rich tones of fall. I used several distress markers to ink up the stamp - Bejeweled by Penny Black, lightly spritzed with water and then stamped onto bristol vellum card stock. For the linen background I used an old background stamp by Stampin Up, and the script background stamp I used is also from Stampin Up. I was able to use just portions of the stamp by unmounting it and bending it while stamping. 

The sentiment is from the Set Patisserie, another one of Penny Black's stamps. I thought the fall colors would go well with distressed edges, so that is what I decided to do here and then I also used my sewing machine for some stitches around the image panel. Oh, and I also inked the edges using yellow, orange and red distress inks before distressing. Designer paper is from an old double sides set of papers by Stampin Up. 

Above is a picture of the inside. I used the same flower again, didn't even have to re-ink, because I wanted it to be paler shade. I just huffed on it a little to re-activate the ink and was able to stamp part of the flowers in each corner. Sentiment on the inside is from the set Sprinkles and Smiles by Penny Black. I used the linen background stamp again and inked the edges to match the outside.

This card is listed in my Etsy shop if you're interested. 

We'd love for you to come join us, and you can enter up to 3 times for more chances to win. We welcome any brand of rubber or clear stamps, just no digi stamps.

I am also playing along again in the new "Flower Challenge", this month the theme is anything goes, as long as flowers are the focal point.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Colorful Sunflowers

Hi everyone and thanks so much for visiting. Hope your week is off to a good start. I made today's card using an old (but new to me) stamp by PSX.

 It's been stamped onto xpress it blending card using Memento tuxedo ink and I used my copic markers for coloring, following this week's challenge at Allsorts (Autumn Colors). The little dots were done using another really old stamp from SU. Sentiment is from a newer clear set by Penny Black. Papers are all from my stash, I think by My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey. Green card stock is by SU. I finished off the card by tying a bow using jute twine and applied wink of stella to the flower centers. 

Playing along here:

 CAS(e) this sketch

 

Allsorts for color inspiration: 

 

The flower challenge: 

Before I let you go I wanted to share this huge apple we found at the orchard this weekend. It wasn't our first time there, but first time we saw this apple tree (and they only had one of these trees). In my left hand I am holding a regular (larger) sized Jonathan apple and a really small one, the one in my right hand is called a "Wolf River" apple. It's the size of one of those "pie" pumpkins.

Apparently this apple originates from Wisconsin. So if you're from that area, then this is probably nothing new to you, but I surely never expected to see an apple this huge!

Have a great day!!

Mixed Media Canvas - Inspired by Brenda

Hello everyone, I have something a little different so show you today. I decided to play along in this week's Allsorts challenge (which is Penny Black and More's sister challenge where I am a DT member, so not entering for the prize drawing), but they always seem to have such fun challenges there so I am hoping to join in more often just for the fun and inspiration. Not sure about anyone else, but I have been feeling so uninspired recently, checking out all the challenges online or ideas on pinterest doesn't help me at all and really make things worse (too much inspiration you could say), so I need to find just a couple of challenges that I follow closely and not all of them. Allsorts seems a good place to start as some of my PB & More team mates are on the design team and even though I won't be entering into the prize drawing, it'll be fun to create following their fun themes! 
 
And a new challenge blog has just started "The Flower Challenge", which is another blog I will be adding to the challenge blogs to keep a closer look at. Their first theme this month is "Anything Goes" (with flowers as a focal point of course), and I am looking forward to their upcoming challenges.


This week the theme at Allsorts is "Re- Run", meaning CASE a creation made previously by one of the DT members for Allsorts, this was the prefect chance for me to CASE one of Brenda's beautiful creations.  Her blog is full of amazing design, check it out and see for yourself!!

 This was pretty messy to make, but was lots of fun.  And I got to use products I haven't used in probably a decade, like my paper crimper, Stampin Up's retired lumiere and mica powder. 

Like Brenda, I started out with a canvas, which I "stole" from my husband's art supplies. But that's ok, occasionally I see him taking my copics without asking :-)

Harlequins and dots were done using stencils and modeling paste. After this dried, I painted lumiere (pearlescent acrylic paint from Stampin up - probably retired) over the texture and then rubbed some gold mica powder over it making sure not to cover the whole canvas with it. Next I added all other elements (crimped paper, die cut flowers, butterflies, flourish and word), which I also used lumiere and gold mica on before adhering to the canvas. Sticky dots and pearls were used as flower centers and for the butterflies, and I decided to darken it just a little but by using a turquoise gelato here and there, and little bit of a lilac gelato to bring in a little more color. 

This might have been the messiest thing I've ever worked on, my fingertips looked like they turned gold and were really shiny, but it rinsed off easily with just soap and water.

 The canvas measures approx. 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

Below is Brenda's canvas. Isn't it absolutely amazing!! As you can see I followed her design closely, but of course had to switch things up with products I have. And then I ended up using a shade of lilac that's too deep, wish I hadn't done that, but it's too late now...

 Here is the link to her blog post if you'd like to read how she made this.

Finally here is a  list of products I used:
Harlequin and dots stencils (sorry I don't remember the brand)
Modeling  Paste (I have Galeria brand)
Gesso (I have Golden brand)
Pearlescent  acrylic paint (I have Lumiere by SU)
Large flower: Penny Black die
Smaller flowers: MFT die set
MS butterfly punch
flourish die (Whimsy Stamps - vines)
Word art die (Whimsy Stamps)
Faber Castell gelatos

Aztec gold mica powder (I have perfect pearls brand)
sticky pearls and dots
crochet trim
paper crimper
canvas

Linking up here:
The Flower Challenge
 
Allsorts

More Mixed Media Challenge
theme: anything goes- orange is optional


Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Critters and Creatures Linky Party 8

Good morning, happy Monday and welcome to the new Critters & Creatures Linky Party! So happy you decided to stop by here today!! It was wonderful seeing so many of you join in last month, be sure to scroll down to see if your creation was a top choice.

As usual, the theme here is simple 

anything goes but the focal point must be a critter or creature.

(animal, insect, sea life, imaginary creature).  

For today I decided to create a cute Christmas card using another one of Penny Black's cute kitties.

Colored with copic markers and this time I fussy cut the image to fit my design.

The green paper is actually SU's wild wasabi, but I added wink of stella to make it sparkle. Patterned paper is by Whimsy Stamps (retired) and I used gold cord and some sticky dots as embellishments. Sentiment is from a Penny Black sentiment set.

If you're interested in purchasing the cute set I used today, you can find it brand new here in my Etsy shop.

As you can see it includes several cute critters :-)

 

 The card has also been listed, and you can find it here on Etsy.

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Time to announce the top choices now, always hard to choose, but I did manage, and here they are in no particular order:

Babs 

Sue Kment

 

 Judy 

 Congratulations ladies! Your top pick badge is below.

Now it's time to think about a new critter or creature to feature! Can't wait to see what you make.

You have until October 31st to play along. Just leave a link to your blog post or online gallery (Flickr or Splitcoast Stampers) using inlinkz below.

ETA 5/20/18:
To protect the privacy of those who entered this challenge, the linky tool has now been removed.

Penny Black and More - October Challenge

Happy Sunday and thanks so much for visiting! Time already for the October challenge at Penny Black and More, and this month we're having a color challenge. Can you guess the colors by looking at my card?

Well here is the inspiration photo for you, I did pretty good capturing them all, don't you think?

I knew I wanted to use the beautiful sunflower stamp from the new set "Grateful".  Perfect stamp for some messy watercoloring and that is just what I did. 

I stamped it using versafine onyx ink on bristol vellum card stock and colored with Zig Clean Color brush pens. I was not very careful when coloring as you can see, but it's the look I went for, and I also added some ink splatters.

Did some more stamping using an old small harlequin stamp from Stampin up and a clock stamp from Just For Fun. The Autumn sentiment is from the set "Autumn Letter Seals" by Whimsy Stamps. Layered some torn papers on the bottom and added a little button and twine to finish it off. The card was then framed using black card stock to make it stand out and green for my card base.

A close up below...

 This stamp set is available brand new in my Etsy shop if you're interested.

I am also playing along here:

Cardz 4 Galz - Fall Colors
Creative Knockouts - Fall
DL ART Thursday Challenge- Fall
DRS Designs- Autumn Wonders

And that is all I have for today. Hope you'll come join us. Don't forget you don't have to use a Penny Black Stamp, any company works just no digis as they aren't eligible for the prizes.  

 Have a great day!!

Let's Color Linky Party 13

Happy Saturday and Happy World Card-making Day!!
A warm welcome to my new followers!

October already and also time for a new Let's Color Linky party!! Hope you'll play along this month! It's always so nice to see many of you join. A huge thank you to everyone that played along last month. Be sure to scroll down to see if your entry was a top choice.

As always the theme here is "Anything goes" as long as it is something hand colored. Use any of your coloring mediums, share any type of craft or even just a completed coloring page. 

Since Fall is here and beautiful colors everywhere I decided to use fall colors on my card today. At least I tried to. I just love the rich colors of fall.

The cute kitty is by Penny Black, stamped onto xpress it blending card and colored with copic markers. Wink of Stella was applied to all the flowers but it's really hard to see in the photo. I embellished with some twine and finished off the card with some machine sewing. Love this cute stamp!! But then again, I am obsessed with all Penny Black critters :-)

Here is another view:

You can see some of the sparkle above.

Card has been listed in my Etsy shop, if you're interested :-)

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Now onto the top picks, as always it's hard to choose, but I did narrow it down and this time I picked some gorgeous fall themed entries, listed in no particular order. Each one beautifully done!


Cornelia


Lesia Cook



Vicki ODell
 

Congratulations ladies, below is your top pick badge!

  And now it's time to get coloring again. Can't wait to see what you all come up with this time.
You have until October 31st to play along. Simply leave a link to your blog post or online gallery (Flickr or Splitcoaststampers) using inlinkz below. Very sorry but I won't comment on pinterest, instagam, or facebook entries. Thank you for understanding.

A few reminders:
Must include something colored

Blog post must include link back here

Unlimited entries and feel free to combine with other challenges

No back linking to older projects please

Anything goes with something colored

ETA 5/20/18:

To protect the privacy of those who entered this challenge, the linky tool has now been removed.